Three flawed directors who still make me love film

(Note: these directors and movies are not films I qualify as the best of all time.  They are films that, at three in the morning, make me joyful that film was invented so that such beauty could come into the world, fallen though it is)

Brad Bird: his visual sensibilities (found in his character and production design), commitment to quality both in technical (the textures, details, and smoothness of his animation), writing (the sheer intelligence and connectedness of his scripts, no matter how zany or improbable his concepts), and powerful characterizations in The Iron Giant, Ratatouille, and above all, The Incredibles.

M. Night Shyamalan: I believe his scriptwriting developed uphill until Signs, then started a rapid downward turn which steepens every movie afterwards (we'll see about Last Airbender).  However, in The Village, despite the horrifyingly grating writing and screechingly artificial direction (especially of poor William Hurt, who I hated for years after I saw the film until I finally saw him in things he was natural in, such as Dark City or Jane Eyre), there are two things in this gaspingly flawed movie that yet make me love film: Ivy's character and love for Lucius (due mostly to the incredible Bryce Dallas Howard), and the framing, colors, textures (oh, the textures - I feel the images as much as see them) of the cinematography.

Joe Wright: his direction and conceptions of his characters are profoundly immature; his interviews and personal behavior careening from loutish to priggishly arrogant.  His films also are deteriorating (The Soloist and Atonement were interesting, but mostly in their failures, I believe).  However, his ability to capture beauty, isolation, clarity, and incredibly powerful extended takes stays with my heart when I think of why I care about the medium so deeply.

  
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02 Mr. Huph Will See You Now.wma (1503 KB)

05 Will You Help Me by James Newton Howard  
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5. Will You Help Me.mp3 (1460 KB)

Liz On Top Of The World by Pride & Prejudice  
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Rage

This.

On repeat.

All.  The.  Way.  Up.

Oh, and apparently reading Georgette Heyer as a guy is gender-bending?  It made my professor happy.

Also, not sure if I like Rage or Fury better.  Ire is good, but not raw sounding enough. Irate isn't an abstract quality.  Iration isn't a word.  Wrath.  That's a good one.

And the internet hates me.  That's fine.  I hate it reciprocally.

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Shudder...ugh!

I  love rain.  Well, not so much while driving or biking, or while trying to get to class, but the smell just before, the wandering about in it (either very nice and moody or cheerful and happy - think of either any rain/cry scene in a movie or "Singing in the Rain" and that's me).

But walking after dark after rain...when the worms are all on the sidewalk, and you think they're sticks but they move...and then the light catches them and they're all slimy.

Just...ugh...

DO NOT WANT!!!!!

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Burning Lightwell

2010

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So

yeah

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A brilliant video

Found this on Orson Scott Card's blog today (www.hatrack.com):

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A day at the Peiffers!

So: 10:30 am - leave to cook lunch (Korean BBQ burgers and rice) - tons of fun - marinate and form burgers, make rice, get the charcoal coaling, shoot airsoft guns at trees

12:30ish - eat eat eat yay yum mmm full!

2pm - Zach Malone and Joseph Rossell arrive and we all play Lord of the Rings Risk (unfortunately, the incomplete 2002 version, but still a lot of fun)

6:30pm - short break for chicken nugget and fries dinner

8:00pm - Zach and Aaron, the forced of Good, crush Joseph and I, the forces of Orcness and Wraithness and Trollness.  Much weeping and gnashing of teeth - but we put up a good fight.  Just a few unfortunate things occurred - from die rolls, to card shuffles, to beginning placements - not sure there is a lot we could have done about it.  Lots of fun.

8-10pm - discussion over cake and ice cream about BBC costume dramas and other literary movies - much fun had comparing actors (Rosamund Pike from P&P 2005 and Wives and Daughters especially praised).

10pm (nowish) Home, James!  To blog!

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I love goo gone

Static by Thomas Newman  
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35 Static.mp3 (2415 KB)

Just remembered to avail myselfs of this wonderful yellow solvent for the unsightley stickiness on the bottom of my new water bottle.  Said bottom of bottle is now beautifully white and pretty.  Sort of like my floors, which I just cleaned, and my dishes, likewise.

Music is to fit mood, which is wistful.  And hungry (will probably fix that once I've walked to campus and back).

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Meme from Dickensblog!

(picture: Claire Foy, titular star of "Little Dorrit (2008)")

Normally I don't do these.  But I felt like it today!

Which Dickens character are you secretly in love with?

No secret - it's Amy Dorrit (Little Dorrit)!  Though I'm also a big fan of Bella Wilfer (Our Mutual Friend).

Which Dickens character would you most like to be?

Hmmm - probably Arthur Clennam (Little Dorrit), or perhaps John Jarndyce (Bleak House).

Which Dickens character do you think most resembles you?

Perhaps Nicholas Nickleby, wandering aimlessly through life and losing his temper at perceive injustices.  Or Scrooge, misanthrope extraordinaire (with a somewhat sympathetic backstory, and a redemption).

Which Dickens book have you read the most times?

A Christmas Carol.  Someday, though, I hope it will be Little Dorrit (but it takes a bit more time).

How old were you when you read your first Dickens book?

Probably about 8 or 10.

What is the worst Dickens book you've read?

I am really not a fan of A Tale of Two Cities, though I really should reread it, as I read it before I fell in love with Dickens as an author.

What is the best Dickens book you've read?

Little Dorrit, without hesitation.  I adore the love story, and the double climax structure.  Though I have to say, despite its characterizational flaws, I recently read and loved Hard Times.

What Dickens book would you most like to see made into a new movie and/or miniseries?

Dunno - I tend to read the books when the miniseries gets my attention.  I'm not really thrilled with any of the Oliver Twist adaptations, but there has been too many of them recently.  Though I wish Andrew Davies' Dombey and Son project hadn't gotten canned - it might have gotten me to read the book sooner.

What Dickens book would you least like to see made into a new movie and/or miniseries?

A Tale of Two Cities.  Because I just don't care.  Or Little Dorrit - because it just got made absolutely heartbreakingly beautifully, and I can't imagine it being done better, so it would only get worse.

What is the most difficult Dickens book you've read?

Dunno.  I'm still stuck in the middle of Nicholas Nickleby, Bleak House, and Our Mutual Friend - but not because they're difficulty, because I have school readings.

What is your desert island Dickens book?

Little Dorrit.  Again, without hesitation.  Sorry to be such a scratched record, but that's what is true for me.

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Update on "Ironically" substitute

I've now decided that "paradoxically" can be used in addition to "incongruously" as a substitute for the much abused "ironically."  Paradox and incongruity are more accurately describing the "outcome being opposite to the desire of the outcome-ee" than "ironically" - which is a verbal phenomenon in which the intent of the speaker is opposite of the literal or denotative meaning of the words said (most obvious example being sarcasm).

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Rrrr

So, the whole exercise thing?  It isn't my knee that has been affected this time: it's my stupid neck.  Yay for not being able to move past about 40 degrees in either direction, and feeling like an old, old, stiff, creaky person with aches and pains.  I'm only 23, yo!

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I'm crazy!!!

Yup - basketball and fencing and walking like a fiend.  I am just waiting for my knee to snap.  Oh, boy.

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